Paint on Deer Stones of Mongolia

Abstract

This study focuses on traces of paint on stone stelae (“deer stones”) of Mongolia, dating to late second to mid-fi rst millennia BC. Painting was made in various shades of red. In all cases, remains of paint were found on facets which had been protected from weathering because the stelae had collapsed or been reused. An additional protection might have been provided by a calcite crust formed where the stelae contacted the ground. Based on the role of painting in visual imagery, two groups of paintings are described: supportive (filling in the engraved fi gures) and independent. The first group is the largest. In terms of composition, stelae fall into two types: those whose front is on the narrow vertical facet, carrying images of deer in a Mongolian-Transbaikalian style, and those whose front is on the wide vertical facet, where the upper tier is separated, and neither deer nor belts with weapons are represented. The relative chronology of the two types is established by the fact that in certain instances, stelae of the fi rst type were reshaped into those of the second type. The fi rst type is related to funerary and memorial sites of the Khereksur and Deer Stone culture of Central Mongolia; the second, to burials of the Slab Grave culture. The tradition of decorating engraved fi gures with red mineral paint had originated among eastern Eurasian steppe pastoralists in the Early Bronze Age.